Kingdom of Serbia

The Kingdom of Serbia was a European nation that existed from 1882 to 1918, with Belgrade serving as its capital. The kingdom, located in the Balkans, was created on 6 March 1882 when Prince Milan I of Serbia elevated the Principality of Serbia to a kingdom, and Prince Milan maintained a foreign policy friendly to Austria-Hungary. From 1912 to 1913, Serbia expanded as a result of the Balkan Wars, during which it conquered Kosovo, Macedonia, and parts of Montenegro from the Ottoman Empire. The kingdom was invaded by Austria-Hungary in 1914 as the result of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serb nationalist in Sarajevo, with the Austrian government accusing the Serbian government of giving support to Serb nationalist groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The kingdom was defeated and occupied by the Austro-Hungarian forces, but it continued to fight for years. After the war, Serbia and the neighboring kingdom of Montenegro merged with the former Austrian Balkan territories to form the new Kingdom of Yugoslavia.